New Details Emerge in Lake Mead Veterinarian’s Suicide

This past spring, Dr. Shawn Frehner, a respected Las Vegas-area veterinarian, vanished after becoming the target of a vicious online campaign. Now, after months of unanswered questions, reporting from NewsNation’s affiliate 8 News Now Investigators has offered more insight into the veterinarian’s death.

In May, the Clark County coroner’s office had officially ruled Frehner’s death a suicide. His body, found April 18 in Lake Mead near the Boulder Islands, was confirmed through dental records. The coroner’s office determined his cause of death was drowning, with the powerful sedative pentobarbital — a drug commonly used in animal euthanasia — also present in his system.

According to documents obtained by 8 News Now and reported this week by NewsNation, two jet skiers discovered Frehner’s body at Lake Mead just days after his truck — containing his keys, wallet, and phone — was found parked at Hemenway Harbor. Rangers also located ankle weights on his body, and the Clark County coroner later determined that Frehner drowned after taking the pentobarbital.

NewsNation notes that dental records confirmed Frehner’s identity on April 19. The coroner’s office emphasized that, as a veterinarian, he had access to controlled substances not typically available outside the profession.

The events leading up to Frehner’s death remain painfully familiar in the age of social media outrage.

A video circulated in early April showing Frehner kicking a horse during a difficult procedure in Pahrump, Nevada. While Frehner later apologized, saying he was trying to reposition the animal to clear its airway, critics labeled the footage “pure abuse.” His explanation was quickly drowned out by a digital mob.

In the days that followed, his inbox and online reviews were flooded with threats and vitriol. Advocacy groups and social media users openly celebrated his presumed death. Some went so far as to call his suicide “the coward’s way out.”

»Related: A growing crisis: America’s shortage of large-animal veterinarians